I'd like to think that smart people can see that electric cars with batteries are a bad investment because when the battery pack goes bad, and all battery packs go bad, you're left with NOTHING. Their resale value will be bad for the same reason. The battery packs are so expensive to replace that you might as well throw the car away and buy a new one.

Let's use the example of drills. You can buy a cheap corded drill that could last you the rest of your life under average use. You can't do that with a cordless even though they cost way more because the batteries will eventually fail or become so powerless as to be effectively failed.

When it comes to the many thousands of dollars that cars cost, throwing money down a hole on a battery-powered car isn't smart. I'm very eagerly awaiting something better than batteries.

You can't tell me that there is any excuse for gasoline powered engines anymore. Because there isn't. They claim hydrogen power won't work because you need a whole new infrastructure for distribution. Not anymore. Personal piss manufacturing plants are already pretty well distributed where they would need to be. The rest of the stuff is hardware and can be distributed through current trucking/shipping infrastructure and sold through Napa, Home Depot, etc.

The technology is here. Third-world teenagers can build it! If it does not get developed and put into production it is because the Government and Big Oil actively prevent it from happening. I'd call that treason, myself. It is undeniably in the best interest not just of the US, but of the entire world for reliance on oil to be ended. This is a huge step in that direction, it is achievable within our lifetime, and it isn't even expensive. To prevent it from happening is to knowingly violate the oath of office and deliberately act against American interests in favor of personal financial gain.

But the halt in production means Fisker had to delay the Karma's debut in China, a market packed with new millionaires eager to make a statement in a $100,000 car Why not have a Chinese company make the batteries?

natazha:"urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which cracks the urea into nitrogen, water, and hydrogen. "

And what is powering the electrolytic cell? Magic?

Electricity + chemical energy from the urea. The voltage for this cell is significantly less than for one that's just splitting plain water, meaning you get more hydrogen out for a given amount of electrical input. As long as you're dealing with pure solutions under laboratory conditions it does work, but I don't know how well it will transfer to the real world (where you have to deal with e.g. bacterial fouling of the electrodes, or competing reactions from chloride ions).

Explodo:I'd like to think that smart people can see that electric cars with batteries are a bad investment because when the battery pack goes bad, and all battery packs go bad, you're left with NOTHING. Their resale value will be bad for the same reason. The battery packs are so expensive to replace that you might as well throw the car away and buy a new one.

Let's use the example of drills. You can buy a cheap corded drill that could last you the rest of your life under average use. You can't do that with a cordless even though they cost way more because the batteries will eventually fail or become so powerless as to be effectively failed.

When it comes to the many thousands of dollars that cars cost, throwing money down a hole on a battery-powered car isn't smart. I'm very eagerly awaiting something better than batteries.

Hagbardr:Explodo: I'd like to think that smart people can see that electric cars with batteries are a bad investment because when the battery pack goes bad, and all battery packs go bad, you're left with NOTHING. Their resale value will be bad for the same reason. The battery packs are so expensive to replace that you might as well throw the car away and buy a new one.

Let's use the example of drills. You can buy a cheap corded drill that could last you the rest of your life under average use. You can't do that with a cordless even though they cost way more because the batteries will eventually fail or become so powerless as to be effectively failed.

When it comes to the many thousands of dollars that cars cost, throwing money down a hole on a battery-powered car isn't smart. I'm very eagerly awaiting something better than batteries.

Somehow I don't think a corded electric car would be all that useful.

I'm still a fan of diesel/electric hybrids. The diesel engine is efficient and easy/quick to refuel and the powertrain is simplified by being electric. Trains have been doing it for decades because it works so good so why not cars?

Tobin_Lam:Hagbardr: Explodo: I'd like to think that smart people can see that electric cars with batteries are a bad investment because when the battery pack goes bad, and all battery packs go bad, you're left with NOTHING. Their resale value will be bad for the same reason. The battery packs are so expensive to replace that you might as well throw the car away and buy a new one.

Let's use the example of drills. You can buy a cheap corded drill that could last you the rest of your life under average use. You can't do that with a cordless even though they cost way more because the batteries will eventually fail or become so powerless as to be effectively failed.

When it comes to the many thousands of dollars that cars cost, throwing money down a hole on a battery-powered car isn't smart. I'm very eagerly awaiting something better than batteries.

Somehow I don't think a corded electric car would be all that useful.

I'm still a fan of diesel/electric hybrids. The diesel engine is efficient and easy/quick to refuel and the powertrain is simplified by being electric. Trains have been doing it for decades because it works so good so why not cars?

drjekel_mrhyde:But the halt in production means Fisker had to delay the Karma's debut in China, a market packed with new millionaires eager to make a statement in a $100,000 carWhy not have a Chinese company make the batteries?

'Cuz AMERIKA!!!

/You make a valid point//Hi-cap lithium batteries are surprisingly high labor

Explodo:I'd like to think that smart people can see that electric cars with batteries are a bad investment because when the battery pack goes bad, and all battery packs go bad, you're left with NOTHING. Their resale value will be bad for the same reason. The battery packs are so expensive to replace that you might as well throw the car away and buy a new one.

IDK what a replacement battery for a Fisker Karma costs. Maybe people who spend $119K on a car don't care.

Allen262:Tobin_Lam: Hagbardr: Explodo: I'd like to think that smart people can see that electric cars with batteries are a bad investment because when the battery pack goes bad, and all battery packs go bad, you're left with NOTHING. Their resale value will be bad for the same reason. The battery packs are so expensive to replace that you might as well throw the car away and buy a new one.

Let's use the example of drills. You can buy a cheap corded drill that could last you the rest of your life under average use. You can't do that with a cordless even though they cost way more because the batteries will eventually fail or become so powerless as to be effectively failed.

When it comes to the many thousands of dollars that cars cost, throwing money down a hole on a battery-powered car isn't smart. I'm very eagerly awaiting something better than batteries.

Somehow I don't think a corded electric car would be all that useful.

I'm still a fan of diesel/electric hybrids. The diesel engine is efficient and easy/quick to refuel and the powertrain is simplified by being electric. Trains have been doing it for decades because it works so good so why not cars?

I would like to know that too...

It's still more efficient to use just gas or diesel for smaller cars. Diesel electric hybrids are best used in giant vehicles like trains and armored soccer mom SUVs.